1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communication system security, and more particularly, to various methods and devices for structuring data link layer frames to improve security in wireless communication systems.
2. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources.
Communications over such a wireless network can be sensitive to the manipulation of mobile devices in an attempt to impersonate an authorized subscriber, and to eavesdropping of the information exchanged on the air interface. To mitigate these issues, various security features have been established within various wireless communication standards.
For example, security features provided in various wireless communication networks may include subscriber identity confidentiality and authentication, user data confidentiality, and signaling information element confidentiality. With respect to user data confidentiality, encryption may be applied to wirelessly exchanged information utilizing one or more suitable encryption algorithms. However, in some implementations encryption of the information can be enabled or disabled by the user, and further, test equipment may frequently utilize unencrypted communication signals. Here, it may be possible for an eavesdropping attacker to monitor unencrypted transmissions, determining certain patterns in the transmissions that can potentially be utilized to expose the underlying algorithms used to encrypt transmissions.
Therefore, a way is desired to reduce or minimize the security risk posed by using predictable patterns in encrypted wireless transmissions.